It is sometimes desirable to create a document of one format from a document of a different format. For example, one may wish to create a physical markup format document from a semantic markup format file. One example of a semantic markup format is the extensible markup language (XML). Portable document format (PDF) documents are one type of physical markup format files. It may also be desirable to create physical markup format documents from other types of documents, including word processing documents.
One difficulty that may be encountered when creating a document of one format from a document of another format involves identifying logical elements within a source document and reflecting the logical elements in the newly generated document. Examples of such logical elements include character color information, paragraph identification, hyperlinks, etc.